Amy Tuck accentuates the positives on Mississippi's Statehood Day

Former Miss. Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, left, delivers an address in the House of Representatives chamber at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Miss., on Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, during an observance of Mississippi Statehood Day on the 195th anniversary of the state's admission to the union. (AP Photo/The Clarion-Ledger, Joe Ellis)

JACKSON, Mississippi -- Former Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck chose to accentuate the positive on Monday while marking the 195th anniversary of Mississippi statehood.

Rather than mention low teacher pay and high illiteracy rates, Tuck boasted about a literary heritage that includes William Faulkner, Richard Wright and Eudora Welty.

Rather than dwell on a difficult history of race relations, she talked about civil rights icons like Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Speaking at a Statehood Day event at the Old Capitol Museum in downtown Jackson, Tuck also boasted that Mississippi musicians, from Robert Johnson to Elvis Presley, rocked the world. And she said the state has produced medical pioneers like Dr. James Hardy, who performed the world's first heart transplant surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1964.

Tuck cited the late Maj. Gen. Fox Conner as an example of courage. The Calhoun County native was an influential U.S. Army officer between World War I and World War II, acting as a mentor to two major figures in World War II -- Army Chief of Staff George Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was supreme commander of the American and British forces in Europe and later became president.

"I believe Mississippi's greatest and enduring resource has been the character, the honesty, the work ethic of our people," Tuck said. "And I believe that those same characteristics will continue to hold our great state of Mississippi in good stead as we move forward."

Mississippi became the 20th state on Dec. 10, 1817. It was the second Southern state to try to leave the union. Mississippi issued its secession declaration in January 1861, three months before the start of the Civil War.

State Sen. Hillman Frazier, D-Jackson, said he believes Mississippi is one of the most interesting states in the nation, with its diverse history that includes the good and the bad.

Former Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck speaks Monday on Statehood Day. (AP photo)

"We have had our highs and lows in this state, and we learn from some of the bad experiences in this state and we're making it a better state," Frazier, who's a member of the Legislative Black Caucus, said after Tuck's speech. "I'm thinking about the advances we have made in race relations over the years -- going through slavery, going through Reconstruction, going through the civil rights struggle and now trying to sit down at the table and work together finding solutions for this state. And we learn from these experiences of trying to work together. We're going in the right direction in this state."

Former Gov. William Winter, a Democrat who served from January 1980 to January 1984, said he's more optimistic about Mississippi's future than he has ever been.

"Just look at the quality of life in the state now as compared to what it was years ago, the progress in racial reconciliation," Winter said. "I think the recognition in the state now that we have not let ourselves be set apart, that we are part of the mainstream of the United States and we can make a great contribution to the future of America."

Tuck was lieutenant governor from January 2000 to January 2008, serving first as a Democrat and later as a Republican. She was the second woman to hold the job.

Several dozen fourth graders from Madison County's Mannsdale Elementary School attended the Statehood Day event, and Tuck told them they'll help shape the future of the state.

One of the children, 9-year-old London Breedlove, said afterward that she sees big things ahead: "Everybody being trillionaires."

Her father, 35-year-old Keith Breedlove, is a real estate investor and self-described "north Louisiana transplant" who has lived in Mississippi since 2000.

"I think it's one of the brighter states in the union, as a reflection of how well we handled coming out of a tragedy like Katrina," Breedlove said of his adopted state.

He said Mississippi is still burdened with stereotypes about being backward and uneducated. But "We're resilient people."